Census: Marriage, college degrees still A+ in Lake, Geauga

Recent U.S. Census counts show that U.S. Rep. Steven C. LaTourette's district, especially Lake and Geauga counties, exceeds the state average of homes for married-couple households, college-educated residents and people of Hispanic origin.

Those are among estimates of the American Community Survey of social characteristics from 2005 to 2009, with some "margins of error." The final counts in the 2010 Census will be released early next year.

"I'm anticipating positive social characteristics to stay relatively stabile or to increase in our area," said Jason Boyd, Lake County Planning Commission director.

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The tallies also reflect Ohio House of Representative's District 62 in western Lake County and Concord Township, District 63 in Mentor and eastern Lake County and District 98 in Geauga County and eastern Cuyahoga County.

The districts, each with similar populations, are currently represented by state Reps. Lorraine Fende, D-Willowick; Mark Schneider, D-Mentor; and Richard Hollington, R-Hunting Valley.

Families

LaTourette, R-Bainbridge Township, represents a district with a total estimated population of 649,625 in Lake, Geauga and Ashtabula counties, big parts of eastern Cuyahoga and Summit counties and small parts of Portage and Trumbull counties.

The 14th District includes 140,041 married-couple households, or 56.5 percent of the district's homes.

That's 64.7 percent in Geauga and 51.7 percent in Lake.

The congressional district and both counties are higher in married-couple households than the statewide average of 49 percent of households with married-couple families.

As part of the family population, its 48.5 percent in Fende's district, 54.9 percent in Schneider's district and 61.1 percent in Hollington's district.

College education

For residents ages 25 and older, bachelor's degrees are held by an estimated 85,141 residents, or 19.2 percent of the congressional district population. That's 20.9 percent in Geauga and 20.9 percent in Lake.

Such degrees are held by 27.1 percent of Mentor's residents and 12.9 percent in the county seat of Painesville. Both are in Schneider's district.

People with degrees make up 17.9 percent of Fende's district, 14.6 percent in Schneider's district and 21.9 percent in Hollington's district.

Ronald M. Traub, Mentor's economic development director, thinks schooling and stable households help make his city a better place to live.

"That 27.1 percent for bachelor's degrees for Mentor is also higher than the state's level (23.6 percent)," Traub said.

"Mentor is also more dependent on manufacturing jobs as part of its overall economic health. I think we're up to $62,500 median household income from $57,230 in 2000.

"That's higher than the county and state average. Our percent of owner-occupied dwellings is also up."

Boyd thinks college educations are reflected in jobs held by Lake County in biomedical sites like hospitals or high-tech manufacturers either off Interstate 90 in Lake and Geauga counties or I-271 in eastern Cuyahoga County.

"I think higher education attainment and good income are related to the high number of jobs in the county off Interstate 90 or the I-271 corridor," the planning chief said.

Foreign born

Of the district's 649,625 residents, 4.6 percent are foreign born.

But it's a higher 5.6 percent in Lake County and a lower 2.8 percent in Geauga County.

Of the total 29,597 foreign-born people, 7.97 percent entered the United States before 2000. That includes 8 percent in Lake and 6.6 percent in Geauga compared with 3.6 percent in all Ohio.

Of all the foreign born in the congressional district, 47.17 percent came from Europe while the Ohio average is 66.7 percent. Asia accounted for 30.8 percent of the foreign born in LaTourette's district, compared to the Ohio average of 29.6 percent.

The foreign born coming from Latin America consists of 15.5 percent of the total. Of that number, 21.1 percent live in Lake County -- 0.7 percent in Mentor and 17.1 percent in Painesville -- and 11 percent in Geauga.

In Ohio, it's 9.9 percent of the Hispanic who settled around the state.